The content authoring tool for digital learning

The market for digital learning has not only experienced an upswing since the pandemic. Global sales have increased by 35.28 billion euros since 2017 - especially in the B2B sector. Companies are one of the largest target groups for digital knowledge transfer and e-learning. They need to regularly update their employees or provide them with content - for example, to provide regular training for updates or to guarantee good onboarding in industries with high staff turnover. Authoring tools make it easy to create learning content in-house. However, they are usually designed for the desktop.

So if you want to learn more, you sit in a classroom or an office with a screen in front of you. Many studies show that the learning effect here is lower than through interactive or physical learning. In addition, the majority of employees are often "deskless workers" - they don't sit in front of a screen. The heating engineer or safety technician is standing in front of machines during construction or maintenance and needs specific information. The complete documentation is rarely available on site. Even employees in system catering, who are often exposed to high stress levels, will not log onto the intranet to look up the required instructions when preparing food or maintaining kitchen machines.

A simple e-learning solution for B2B

The Potsdam-based company Interlake has now developed Nextcreate, a tool that can be used directly with smartphones, tablets or even VR glasses for digital expansion on site and can be called up for the various work phases. "We want to make such learning topics available to the masses. And software doesn't solve the problems, it's just an enabler," says Sven Slazenger, CEO and founder of Interlake. "In the simplest description, we were looking for a solution to transport information from A to B. Retrievable on desired target devices such as tablets and mobile phones that everyone has at hand and, on the other hand, so easy to use that anyone who knows Outlook can do it. We enable those responsible to create the content themselves very easily."

Until the sale of its subsidiary Interlake Learning, Interlake already offered digital learning solutions and worked as an exclusive partner with Articulate, the global provider of a 360-degree storyline tool. The division was sold last year in order to focus on the main business - Microsoft cloud technologies. However, after customers repeatedly approached Interlake with requests for an easy-to-use and desktop-independent application, the company began developing an AR authoring tool that does not require high-end devices and can be used in series.

This is not entirely new: there are now a number of 3D authoring tools in the augmented reality sector - but these in turn need to be equipped with 3D elements. Very few companies have the appropriate content to hand. This is because three-dimensional content requires a lot of time and money. What everyone has available, however, is text information, images, data or videos. Interlake's declared goal: to produce software for these requirements that does not require a "support nightmare", says Slazenger. "Our tool enriches reality with digital information at certain points." As a developer, Interlake cannot be compared with start-ups that collect large investments and thus quickly produce implementations thanks to high expenditure. Instead, the company only invests with its own resources, works closely with customers and along proven sales channels.